It’s been quite a while since I last updated my blog, since well before Christmas in fact. It’s been a strange period with several ups and downs and much reflection. We stayed at the house in Eastern Slovakia over the Christmas and New Year period, which was both hard and amazing at the same time. […]

A few weeks back I got really sick of hearing people tell me that, because of global warming, we’d have a warm winter this year. The start of November was incredibly warm – I was doing our evening walks wearing a t-shirt. However, you could smell the oncoming cold in the air, and then it […]

Just got back from a very pleasant afternoon spent with my adventurous friend Jan. It was 31 degrees centigrade here today and a Bank Holiday (even though it’s a Saturday), so I took Scarlet my BMW 650GS out for a ride through the bush. Out in Bardejov, Jan was preparing for his solo 8000 km […]

It took a little over a year of being a hangaround/prospect but on Saturday night I was finally patched in as a full member of Tilters motorcycle club. It’s a bizarre feeling, something that goes through your head for a long time – and also the possibility that it will never happen. There have been […]

  Yesterday a very special package arrived for my eldest son, Brano. This was the culmination of months and months of research, deliberation and changes of mind. As a graduation present for finishing grammar school with excellent results, and for passing his entrance exams and being accepted into medical school, Brano asked for a sword […]

Last Saturday, 28th of April, my motorcycle club – Tilters Svidnik – headed out to Andy Warhol’s hometown, Medzilaborce, to join hundreds of other riders for the annual blessing at the start of the riding season. Close to the Ukraine border in the small Slovak village of Krasny Brod, bikers and motorcyclists from all over […]

Yesterday was the first day without rain over the Easter period so I took the opportunity to go out for a ride on Scarlet, my BMW F650GS. I didn’t go too far as I’m still running the engine in after a long cold winter. I went to the Valley of Death, scene of the biggest […]

Yesterday was a very, very, very long day but pretty damned cool. I travelled in a minibus across the entire breadth of Slovakia with several other members of Tilters Motorcycle Club to attend the Motocykel & Boat Show 2018 at Incheba EXPO Bratislava. We left at 0630 on the Saturday morning and got back at […]

This photo (my photo of a print of the original..) is currently on display in the town hall of Svidnik, eastern Slovakia (I have my office in this building). It is the same concrete monstrosity as seen in the photo. I am absolutely amazed by this photo and how deep its unspoken imagery goes. It […]

Spring is on the horizon so today we went to the house to check the water situation. We switched off the mains supply over a month ago, before the temperature plummeted to minus 20, and we left the taps open. Unfortunately, the tap in the bath was dripping, although we have no idea why. Fast […]